Scotties 2013: Jennifer Jones aims for a tenth straight playoff spot and a fifth championship

Be forewarned, Scotties participants. Jennifer Jones has had plenty of time to work on her shot.

She's made the most of it and is feeling sharp as she gets ready to represent Manitoba at The Scotties in Kingston, Ontario, beginning this weekend.

It's true that the four-time Scotties champion has come off knee surgery and is enjoying the first few months of her daughter Isabella's life. A newborn can be an all-consuming addition to someone's day to day existence. For Jones, however, baby Isabella has been a saint since coming into this world last November and that has helped immensely.

“To be honest, having her has been way easier than I thought with curling. The balancing has been not bad at all. And I’m on maternity leave so I’m not balancing my job," she laughed. "So, it’s easier."

Off-season knee surgery went well. Jones re-habbed ahead of schedule. She threw rocks right up until a week before Isabella was born and then took the ice again a week and a half afterward. While baby obviously takes the number one slot on the priorities list for Jones, her return to action has been buoyed by the support of those around her.

"I've got my mom who's been traveling and has been fantastic and Brent's (Laing, Isabella's father) mom, who's fantastic. I'm really spoiled with the support," she said.

Returning to action as part of Team North America at January's Continental Cup, Jones impressed observers with how on her game was. “I wouldn’t say there wasn’t any rust," she said, "but it felt great."

At the end of the month, her team of vice Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and Lead Dawn Askin roared through the Manitoba playdowns and secured another berth at the nationals with a 6 and 1 record and a 9-3 win in the provincial final against Barb Spencer.

Ho hum, just another Manitoba championship. "Yeah, right," responded Jones. "It's tough to do."

So is getting to the playoffs at The Scotties, something she has managed to do in each and every one of her nine previous appearances, including last year, when she lost a berth in the final on a measurement in her semi-final game with eventual champ Heather Nedohin.

With another deep field in Kingston, Jones can't - and doesn't - expect an easy path to another playoff appearance. In fact, she believes it just gets harder all the time.

“Absolutely," she said. "All these teams put a ton of work into it and you’re seeing everybody traveling a lot more trying to get Olympic points (to qualify for the Olympic Trials). So, everybody’s playing a lot more and the depth of talent is becoming greater and greater.”

While Jones was off for the first half of the season, it fell to Lawes to step up and skip the team through the fall and early winter. The experience likely will have been good for her, as she slips back to the vice position. Jones, in fact, believes the situation was good for more than just Lawes.

"I think in the long run it’ll be great for our team," she began. "It’s always great to have to face different challenges. I think in the long run we’ll be better for it. I think you grow as people and as players. At the end of the day, we all think we’re better for it. Hopefully that’ll mean good things over the next year or so."

Now that the crew is back to its usual line-up and skipper is taking her swings, Jones is optimistic about what lies ahead.

"I feel like we’re playing quite well," she said. "We had a great provincial from start to finish which is great. We had one little blip, we had a loss midweek, but we generally played pretty well. We’re happy considering it was really our first - I mean, Continental Cup was our first event - but this was really our first real competition together as a team and it felt like I hadn’t been away."

"We’re feeling good and we have some confidence but curling is a funny game, it can change in an instant. Hopefully that confidence will continue," she added.

For all of her appearances at Scotties, you'd forgive Jennifer Jones if it was beginning to seem like something pretty usual, with the excitement and wonder evaporated. Not so, she insists.

“There’s no better feeling. It’s not even (at) the first draw. It’s when you walk in the arena for the first time and you realize where you are. You dream of this for so long as a kid and it will never get old, trust me."

Speaking of kids, that's something that will be different for Jones this time around, whether she wins her 5th Canadian championship or falls by the wayside before reaching that goal.

"Win or lose I get to come home and I can snuggle with her and she's always happy to see me," she said. "Pretty lucky."